The natural mineral resources of Butte have been mined for over 130 years, and now the Mining City has the potential to utilize yet another untapped resource; geothermal energy. Dennis Lester, a Petroleum Engineering Alumni of Montana Tech, and owner of Geothermal Energy Montana LLC, has been creating a plan to develop a geothermal energy power plant in Butte since the late 1980s.
“This project would be a great step forward for Butte as well as Montana and the United States” said Lester of the project. The only other geothermal project of this kind in the United States exists in New Mexico, but other projects of this kind can be seen in many countries throughout the world, such as Japan, Germany, Australia, and Switzerland.
